This is an obscure book. Halberstadt worked in the middle of the nineteenth century as a civil servant in the colony Suriname for more then twenty years. He was very critical of the colonial government. Like Multatuli did in that other Dutch colony, nowadays Indonesia. Everybody knows Ed. Douwes Dekker the author of Max Havelaar. But who has heard of Halberstadt? He lost his job and the authorities tried to make sure he would never find one. Privately he published this book of which apparently only one hundred copies were made. Only a few copies are located in libraries, few in private collections. Some say the Dutch government also played a role in this. Forbidden books are always interesting for historians and book collectors. Halberstadt used the plates from Benoits Voyage a Suriname (1839).